ITEM # 4138

PRICE  $50.00

This is a genuine vintage steel engraving published in an American history in 1856. Engraved by J C Armytage from an original art work by A H Wray.

Dimensions of the engraved area in inches, minus margins 6.50 by 4.50, and the overall size is approx. 9.50 by 6.50. This is not a reproduction or modern reprint. This is a 147 year old steel engraving in excellent condition and guaranteed to be as described.

From the Web:
In the beginning, the English were content to leave the Narragansett alone. In 1627 Plymouth made an agreement with the Dutch not to trade in Narragansett Bay. Canonicus remained aloof from the English colonists, but he could not ignore the defection of the Wampanoag. In 1632 he decided to reassert his authority over them, but when the English colonists supported the Wampanoag, the Narragansett were forced to abandon the effort. The English had altered the balance of power in the region but would soon make themselves felt in other ways. In 1633 the Narragansett, for the first time, felt the full blow of an epidemic when they lost 700 of their people to smallpox. A second epidemic struck in 1635, but the Narragansett were still able to drive the Pequot from the southwest corner of Rhode Island that year and reclaim the territory which they had surrendered in 1622. The following year, a major change occurred in relations between the English and Narragansett.

Rogers Williams was a man of uncommon integrity who believed the English king had no right to claim to native lands, and because he did not hesitate to express this in public, the Puritans banished him from Massachusetts as a dangerous radical. Forced to move to Rhode Island in 1636, his negotiations to purchase land from the Narragansett initiated a long period of mutual trust and respect which continued until the King Philip's War (1675-76). Williams' accommodation with the Narragansett was timely, since the beginning of English settlement in Connecticut had provoked a serious confrontation with the Pequot. Open warfare erupted in 1636 following the seizure of the boat of a Boston trader near Block Island by the western Niantic (Pequot allies). That August, an English retaliatory expedition was sent to Block Island and killed 14 Niantic, burned their village and crops, and then made a similar attack on a Pequot village in eastern Connecticut. During the winter the Pequot planned their retaliation and sent war belts to the Narragansett asking their help. Because of Roger Williams, the Narragansett not only refused the Pequot request, but sent warnings to Boston of impending war, and allied themselves with the English. Narragansett support proved a key factor in the English victory the following year.